Tesco, Marks & Spencer, and Ocado have joined the advisory board of the Compostable Coalition to help further its ambition of achieving full circularity for compostable packaging in the UK.
The supermarkets have committed to help with the coalition’s research project – named Closing the Loop for Compostable Packaging – which is looking into whether the current UK infrastructure can effectively recycle compostable packaging.
The project is exploring the practicality of effectively collecting, sorting and recycling compostable packaging via the UK’s existing collection and treatment streams. Advisory board members, who are also members of the UK’s Plastics Pact, will be able to help ensure that the research is objective and “empirically robust”.
Some 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging, and around 50% of plastic packaging in the UK is not currently being recycled.
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The project will be looking closely at packaging which is particularly hard to recycle, such as consumer flexible packaging (such as crisp bags and fresh produce bags), small formats (such as coffee pods and tea bags), and single-use service ware.
M&S senior packaging technologist Sam Clough said M&S recognises that meeting commitments to customers on plastic will mean the retailer has to to “explore all options”.
“Plastic waste is a difficult problem to solve and compostables could be part of the solution,” he added.
“But their lifecycle is complex, and the benefits are hard to validate. I look forward to supporting this important initiative and being able to critique the findings and help shape the future of compostables on behalf of our customers.”
M&S recently launched recyclable packaging across its range of rice, grains and pulses, while towards the end of last year Tesco committed to replacing or removing packaging on some of its items including bread loaves and doughnuts.
The need to invest in the UK’s own recycling system also comes after a 2021 Greenpeace investigation found that British recycling was left to burn or dumped in Turkey.
“We are delighted to have assembled such a formidable group of packaging and wider industry experts to join our research project,” said Compostable Coalition spokesperson Tomos Davies.
“Their insights and expertise will prove invaluable in finessing the research project as well as ensuring the objectivity and robustness of our research trials.”
